“Good Lord!” I thought, “how am I to get home, what will Ethel Bassett think?” Would she tell her mother or Mumsie? What would Mumsie say if she knew I had taken glasses of champagne and claret cup? I felt in my bones that Ethel would be hunting me out soon. We had ordered our cab for half-past one. There was nothing for me to do but to speak to Charlie Lien about Ethel. So I asked my partner to ask him to come to me, which he soon did.
“I know Miss Bassett will wish to go on time,” Charlie declared. “I noticed she had no partner the last dance. And she’s a nice girl too. If you feel shaky you had better take a little more champagne.”
“Not more!” I exclaimed.
“Yes, more, it will straighten you up. Be sure you don’t talk too much and tell her a drunken footman emptied champagne into the claret cup and that you innocently took some. She’s a decent girl.”
“You started that story,” I cried.
“Yes—why?”
I preferred not to answer, and am glad now that I didn’t answer.
We stood in a corner of the dining-room, sipping champagne, very little I took.
“I’d like to see you again,” and he looked smilingly into my eyes. “Will you come and have tea with me some day?”
I felt brave and answered, “Yes.”